The Good Old Days of Honorable John Company (Volume 1); Being Curious Reminiscences Illustrating Manners and Customs of the British in India During th

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1906. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE GOOD OLD DAYS OK HONORABLE JOHN COMPANY. CHAPTER I. FIRST EUROPEAN SETTLERS IN THE EAST. Looked at from a chronological point of view the earliest historical record we have of Europeans in the East is dated B. C. 550, when Scylax is said to have first visited India. He was sent by Darius to explore the Indus, and published an account of his journey, which related to his Greek countrymen many astonishing tales of a traveller. Herodotus, in his short account of India, followed Scylax as an authority. But it was not until the expedition of Alexander (327 B. C.) that a body of able observers, trained in the school of Aristotle, were enabled to give accurate ideas to Europe of the condition of India. Of these writers, Megasthenes is by far the most important. He lived at the court of Chandragupta, at Palibothra, on the Ganges, as an envoy from Seleucus I; and he probably passed some years in India. According to him, the Indian state to . which he was accredited, the military force of which consisted of 60o,000 infantry, 3o,000 cavalry and 9,000 elephants, was better organized and displayed more wisdom in internal government and police arrangements than any country in Europe could boast of. Long before the first English traders landed, the Portuguese had settled in India, had explored some portion of its coasts, had enriched themselves after the manner that a civilised race would enrich itself at the expense of feeble and half civilised races, had enjoyed and abused the advantages they possessed --the advantages of superior knowledge and skill, exerted against races, ignorant of the use of fire-arms, and untrained in military discipline. Vasco de Gama was the first to brave the stormy passage round that Cape, which had baffled so many previous attempts, and which...